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Category Archives: Cycling Events

Ever thought of becoming a pilot but the school fees are simply absurd? Well Red Bull gives you a chance to pilot your own “aircraft”. The first of its kind here in Singapore, The Red Bull Flugtag (pronounced as FLOOG-TAG) is a crazy fun-filled event happening at Sentosa’s Siloso Beach on Sunday, 28th October 2012.

Basically its a taps on the creativity of fellow participants to design and build a zany “flying machine” fit to launch from a 6m high ramp, and glide. Having checked out some of the past videos of the Flugtag event around the world, I must say that its pretty funny to see participants’ machines crash into the water! <insert evil laugh here> Its like Jackass, except on a bigger scale. How fun could it be!

But knowing Singapore and its people here, most would be planning to win the competition – that is to see who could glide the furthest before crashing into the salty waters of Siloso Beach. I mean, Singaporeans are so competitive even in every aspect like education, workplace and even sports. Yeah, we even had to import foreigners to win medals for us. Pffft. What ever happened to local sporting talents, I have no idea…~

Well, if anyone of you out there are looking to win it, might as well try beating the New Flugtag World Record of 69.79m made by a team from Germany. The team, ‘Die Rückkehr der Teichfighter’(translated: “The Return of the poolfighters”) certainly left quite a distance to beat. How befitting of their name eyy! Let’s hope some guys & girls from one of our engineering school can come up with a flying machine good enough to break the world record. 😀

4th March 2012 – Its 6 in the AM and its a Cold, Wet and Loud at the F1 Pit Building.Three words to describe the arrival of the “dream” team. Mass groups of avid cyclists, mothers herding their kids fully attired in their cycling kits. Over on the left, the slightly pudgy office worker psyches himself up for the race ahead while his wife does the last minute safety checks. On the right, a grandfather tells his grand daughter to stay close midst the crowd, trudging forward. Truly, this is a race for all, big or small young or old.

Gentlemen, start your engines!!

As i type this post at the media room, i must say the view overlooking the F1 grid is outstanding, same goes for the journey throughout. Time, 0700hrs, we slowly made our way to the starting line, after the mandatory bike and safety checks (kudos to the organizers for making it thorough without making it to taxing). At this time, the 59km cyclists sprint to the finish, definitely strong. At that point i figured, “this should be a breeze” boy was i wrong.

Time: 0730hrs – Mr Chan Chun Sing, Acting Minister for Ministry of Community Development Youth & Sports, flagged off the start of the 24km Community Ride. From the F1 pits, we made our way down the road towards ECP. View was BREATH to the TAKING!

Marina Bay Sands

Off off here we go!

Riders galore!

After that, comes the climb. At this point, i felt like singing Miley Cyrus “The Climb” and that thought just made me nauseous(seriously). Luckily, we had our Philips Headphones on with excellent noise cancelling and solid bass, we were practically dancing on our bikes up the slope (Grooving to “I Wanna” by All American Rejects, played over 91.3FM, Official radio coverage for OCBC Cycle 2012, you know that feeling right?). Just had to share, these Philips ActionFit Sweatproof and Washable headphones were great – well fitted and the bass was gooooood. 🙂

Down the highway, i think most cyclist would know the feeling of almost never ending road. At this point, Nabil was almost a goner, not because of the ride, but due to lack of sleep from the night before. He had been awake since 0730H the day before! Luckily, we kept each other motivated pushing harder as we inch towards the water point. After the U-turn at East Coast Park Service Road….there it was…… The Pit Stop!!

Fuel Up Riders!

Nabil regained his energy and off we sped through East Coast Park, making new acquantances along the way (yups, we were kinda high after the 100 PLUS). The road was smooth and the closures were planned carefully, thus perfect! Then came the Sheares Bridge yet again. Fuuh, this slope, after the 20km, was quite a thriller. I felt the great burning sensation on my calves and thighs as i trudge through the crowd who were mostly pushing their bikes. After about 10mins sprint down the F1 route, and after clocking a total time of 1hr 14mins, we were done y’all! Hahah felt really great, slight wobbly feeling though – its just the muscles getting use to walking again. 😛

We had a great and fun time over at the OCBC Cycle Singapore 2012

Overall, the ride was superb and if i could point out any learning lessons from OCBC Cycle it would be these:

Enough rest the night before, atleast 6 hours( like me) or you end up shutting your eyes midway through the highway(hint-hint Nabil)

Hydration– Keep yourselves hydrated way before the race, and during the race. Not too much though cause not many toilets along the way plus the inertia of the water in the tummy will affect the cycling experience.

Motivate each other. We had each other to push us through the challenges. Even when you are going out there alone, its okay to push and motivate other riders, c’mon..we are all aiming for the same end.

Check your kits! To prevent abrasions, dangerous falls and bike breakdowns. We noticed several riders stopping at the side fixing their bikes. Even with their Neutral stations, it’ll be great to have portable pumps or tool kits, just in case.

Good accessories!!Philip’s headphones definitely made my experience worthwhile with the sound cancellations and great bass.

Enjoy the view – when you are relaxed and enjoying your environment, the journey is very much enjoyable

Lastly, an event to make NEW friends and also still keep in touch with the old ones. 😉

Adam OneArmRunner and his running, now also, cycling kakis!

So, there you go, OCBC Cycle Singapore 2012 in a nutshell. Nabil and i can’t wait for more races like this, and more than ready to take on harder challenges ahead. And thats WHY WE RUN.

P.S, To view more photos of the event captured by us, click on the icon below!

Saturday, 17 December – Over 1,000 riders took to the streets in the wee hours and headed down for the OCBC Safe Cycling Campaign, held at the Longhouse Food Junction along Upper Thomson. Some came as early as 2.30 AM to collect their limited edition cycling jerseys. Talk about being early as the distribution of the jerseys only started at 6 AM! And by 6.45 AM, ALL the jerseys have been snapped up! Oh wow! 😀

The jerseys – brightly coloured with a mix of red, white and yellow were given out to remind motorists and cyclists alike that ‘1.5M Matters – Sharing Saves Lives’. By the way, 1.5 metres is the safety distance that motorist MUST keep away from cyclist on the roads.

Personally, i have never seen a gathering of cyclists at an event or campaign before and to see 1,000 plus riders coming from different cycling groups and so many different bike models is truly amazing. Seeing all those cyclists this morning and having casual chat with some of them certainly perked up my adrenaline! It made me just wanna go grab a bike and cycle cycle cycle! Its been a looooong time since i had an awesome cycling session.

FYI, i used to have a mountain bike which i used it to cycle around Bukit Timah Hill area until the the day i met with an accident many years back. A silly and clumsy mistake which made me tumble head first and i suffered a concussion. With the bike damaged and the accident left me the faint scar below my right eye, it was indeed a painful lesson. But nonetheless, i loved every day that i was riding.

This is the second edition of OCBC Safe Cycling Day with the campaign running until OCBC Cycle Singapore 2012 (2-4 March 2012) and definitely to infinity and beyond. 🙂 For more information and registration on the OCBC Cycle Singapore 2012, CLICK HERE.

The OCBC Cycle Singapore, is one of the penultimate cycling events in Singapore. And its 2012 edition is happening from 2nd to 4th March 2012! Already into their 4th cycle, the event aims to attract 12,000 cyclist over the course of 3 days.

Registration for the event kicked off to much fan fare over at the OCBC Centre earlier yesterday (Wednesday, 23 Nov 2011). And since this is the 4th time the event is organised, participants (both competitive and leisure cyclists) can expect a couple of exciting changes.

Next year’s event will feature a Junior Challenge category for 10-12 year old kids which will see them race around the F1 Pit for 30min. ALSO an enhanced 61km Super Challenge for those who feel that last year’s 40km is too short. 😛 Next year’s event will see the 61km route will opening up for up to 1500 cyclists,a drastic jump from the 200 qualifying-only this year (2011).

Meanwhile, there will also be fringe activities over the the 3-days event to cater to the community from all walks of life. Be ready to be awed by York Uno, former Asian X-Games Flatland BMX champion, will be showcasing his flips and tricks. Pretty awesome i must say.

On a side note, I am feel honoured to be able to snap a photo with him! And later on try out his bike, only managing a failed 1 sec wheelie. 😛

A 3-days event with performances from York Uno, former Asian X-Games champion.

International riders like the Rapha Condor Sharp from the UK, who are making their fourth appearance in the Criterium PLUS two exciting new teams in GreenEDGE, an Australian UCI WorldTour Team, and Champion System, the new UCI Pro-Continental team; and Altitude Technology Systems from Australia.

Lastly, you get to mix around and meet new people who have the same interests as you whether or not you’re new to the sport or is a veteran in it. 🙂